Night at the Kennedy Center
1 . 03 . 17
M O S D E F
If you aren't a hiphop fan, I can understand why you might not understand my excitement. This night marked the last and final United States concert hosted by the legend that goes by many names. Blaqstar, Black Donte, The Mighty Mos Def, Yasiin Bey. The vibes that he has created, the music he has inspired, the rappers that have come from his hiphop generational tree line; present day Hiphop owes so much to the talents of this man and I was awarded the opportunity to witness in-person his final dance, both figuratively and literally. Big thanks to Wes Felton for holding that down and helping out with those tickets.
There's so much to talk about, like how for the first few songs the crowd seemed so in awe of his presence and candor that instead of standing and dancing, we sat in near silence. Or how out of all the special guests, Yasiin called Slick Rick to the stage and his gold jewelry glowed from the back of the room. Or even how Yasiin made himself comfortable in his space on stage with balloons that seemed to bring him so much joy and being brought to tears after roaring rounds of applause after every song he performed. Even seeing Talib on stage, the smooth conscious rapper that he is, going in and out of tangents as he danced and rapped YG's "FDT", while Yasiin reassured us that Talib had always been the crazy one between them two. The whole thing felt comfortable and was very reminiscent of the feeling of cleaning your house as a child while your mother blasts oldies but all the while being the best concert I've ever attended, as far as the vibe in the entire building carried. I've seen Kanye during Yeezus, I saw Pharrell during NERD's prime, I saw Jay Z & Beyonce during their On the Run tour, I've seen and shot a lot of concerts but no energy was more magnetically electric than this one. Check out the photos below and I only hope they can give you the same emotion they gave me while taking them.
